Fast Fiction: Freters And Grean
Is that Grean in the bus queue? Should Freters go back and take a look? In Richard Mallinson's story Freters' walk to the Ring and Rabbit results in a confrontation with a surprising conclusion.
As Freters walked past the bus queue one grey morning he saw a man in it who looked like Grean. Freters went on for a few yards and then stopped.
Should he go back and take a closer look?
People in the queue watched as Freters stood there. They knew that he didn't know whether to go on or to turn back and he knew that they knew.
He thought that if the man in the queue proved not to be Grean then he, Freters, would feel rather silly - and so would the man in the queue.
The other people in the queue would stare or look away. Some might even be so rude as to giggle.
But if the man in the queue did turn out to be Grean, then what could Freters reasonably say to him?
He could hardly remind him of the time when Grean had drunk so many pints that he'd become abusive to all around him and had had to be ejected from the Ring And Rabbit.
Nor could he remind him of the time when Grean had caused a scene in the local library by telling one of the female assistants that she was about as quick as a snail on a cabbage leaf.
So Freters decided to walk on as if he had seen no-one of interest in the queue and this he did in the direction of the Ring And Rabbit, where he was known for his sobriety even when drunk.
He heard footsteps behind him and a hand touched him on the shoulder and when he turned he saw the man he thought to be Grean.
The man, obviously drunk, said, 'You're Freters, aren't you?'
'No, I'm not,’ said Freters timidly, 'you are hugely mistaken.’
Then he, Freters, sped away and a minute later he was asking the svelte barmaid in the Ring And Rabbit for a large brandy and she said, 'A bit early for this, aint it?' but she served him just the same.
And he said, Thanks, Milly, you're a real sport.' (Or so he'd been told.)
